Genesis Machines

Nanotechnology is seen as likely to be a significant presence in the future, and one way to implement it may be to use a technology that's been around for billions of years -that of life, and in particular of DNA. In Genesis Machines, Martyn Amos tells of the recent research into the possibilities of biological computers, explaining how experiments can be done which select a piece of DNA from billions within a test-tube, thus effectively implementing a massively parallel computer. Amos then goes on to describe how research has moved away from trying to compete with electronic computers, towards using biological computations within a biological context.

Its sometimes hard to follow the different research areas mentioned in the book, but then in a fast moving subject this is inevitable - one wouldn't expect a cut-and-dried explanation of what's going on. One thing that I did feel was that the book could have done with more diagrams to show what was happening in the DNA experiments which were described - there tended to be too little explanation of the DNA side of things, with possibly too much on the history of computation, which I felt interrupted the flow of the book. But overall, if you want to hear about leading edge science and technology then I think you'll find the book well worth reading.